When the clock struck 12:01 AM on November 3, 2010 – the focus on election 2012 began and those in the polling business aren’t missing a beat. Rasmussen recently revealed who likely voters prefer as the leading choice among likely GOP presidential candidates…

[...] Asked who they would vote for if the Republican presidential primary were held today, 20% say Romney, 19% Huckabee and another 19% Palin. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Romney and Palin are tied among male GOP voters, while Huckabee has a slight edge among female voters.

In October 2009 when Likely Republican primary voters were given a choice of five potential presidential nominees, Huckabee led with 29% support, followed by Romney with 24% of the vote and Palin at 18%.

Rounding out the list of seven candidates chosen by Rasmussen Reports for the question, with their levels of support, are former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (13%), Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (6%), Texas Congressman Ron Paul (5%) and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels (3%). Seven percent (7%) prefer some other candidate, and eight percent (8%) are undecided.

(emphasis mine)

New developments…

Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), who wasn’t included in the Rasmussen survey, is resigning from his position as House Republican Conference Chairman – a signal that he’s readying for a 2012 run. Pence recently sent a letter to colleagues in which he stated:

“As we consider new opportunities to serve Indiana and our nation in the years ahead, I have come to realize that it may not be possible to complete an entire term as Conference Chairman. As such, I think it would be more appropriate for me to step aside now, especially since there are other talented men and women in our Conference who could do the job just as well or better.”

Another quirky twist in presidential scuttlebutt is that of a possible Donald Trump candidacy. He may or may not be serious about a go at the White House, but given our nation’s dire jobless situation, hearing what he has to say can’t hurt. Here’s video of Trump on Greta Van Susteren’s show (FOX News) last night offering his businessman’s perspective on America’s waning manufacturing sector, our unfair trade relationship with China, jobs going to Mexico, NAFTA, etc. (Trump echoes some of the same concerns regarding China that Mitt Romney has been warning of since 2007):

“What the politicians have done to this country – I mean, they should just be ashamed of themselves… We are rebuilding China. Somebody’s gotta get smart.” – Donald Trump

For additional news on potential GOP candidates, beginning tonight, Bret Baier is airing a series of profiles on a dozen potential GOP candidates for 2012. His series is called 12 in ’12. Governor Romney declined to be interviewed.

Special Report with Bret Baier is launching a 12-day series on the topic called “12 in ‘12″ that each day will feature a profile of one of 12 Republicans who may launch presidential bids for the 2012 race. Exclusive interviews with 11 of the 12 candidates are planned for the profiles, which begin Thursday evening.

McPike reports, “A thirteenth story is also planned with long-shots such as former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, and others like Donald Trump.”

So, every possible 2012 Republican nominee covered? Looks like it. But Romney wasn’t willing to talk. “We’ve talked to them a number of times,” said Baier of Romney’s camp. “They’ve told me they are hesitant to do anything that has a 2012 connotation to it.”

So the series will air with no interview – although his 11 best competitors in two years will get to begin to make their case to the Fox News audience. Well, three of those 12 get to all the time, since they’re FNC contributors.

(emphasis mine)

Governor Romney has said many times that he would discuss 2012 considerations after midterm elections were over – possibly over the holidays – with his wife, Ann, and his family. This time around, it’s clear he’s going to do things his way.

“I don’t hear people saying Why do we not have jobs? Well, because we’re making our product in China. Why don’t they say that? […] Why don’t they have jobs in Newton, Ohio? Because Maytag moved to Mexico. Because our geniuses gave them incentive to leave this country and go to Mexico. Now are we running Mexico? Or, are we running this country?” – Donald Trump

Before presidential candidates declare for 2012, as well as in the infant months of their actual campaigning, there will be a plethora of too-early-to-mean-anything-but-it-could-bode-well polls. My fingers balk at continually typing ‘this poll is too early to mean anything but it could bode well’. Thus, I came up with an acronym to streamline the task when referring to early Romney-favoring polls: PIC-BIG (Preliminary Inclination Count – But It’s Good).

The latest PIC-BIG poll from Gallup shows Governor Romney leading the pack of GOP presidential potentials for 2012:

I’m a self-proclaimed Tea Party member. It is my understanding the Tea Party movement consists of an ever-growing group of concerned citizens who protest rampant spending in Washington, and the misuse of federal power over individual liberties. I’m happy to be a part of that group.

No doubt, the Tea Party is a force to be reckoned with — evidence of this is witnessed everyday as more and more Tea Party-backed candidates rise to victory in their primary battles. Long-time GOP veterans are ousted (a la Bob Bennett) from their cozy seats while young blood Republicans fervently step in to fill their shoes. For the most part, its a beautiful thing to behold.

My Brother Luke at a SLC Tea Party Rally

I’ve gone to local Tea Party protests; I listen to an occasional Glenn Beck episode; I’ve gone door-to-door as an advocate for conservative principles, I’ve wished I had the money to hit up a National rally; heck, I’ve even listened to and liked some Mama Grizzly speeches. I know, I know, I could certainly do more …but I figure that’s a pretty decent level of activism for a twenty-something, newly married, full-time employee.

I can attest that many of those who write for this site (Team MRC), are gun toting, Bible carrying, freedom loving patriots. We’ve constructed the protest banners; we’ve worn the goofy colonial hats; we’ve marched the marches of the conservative crusade. We’ve been there, done that.

I bring up my/our involvement with the Tea Party movement not to boast, but to illustrate a strange phenomena that is happing to many fellow Mitt Romney backers within the Tea Party: Estrangement.

Somewhere along the line, the notion was adopted, mostly among liberal media but more recently among fellow conservatives, that Mitt Romney represents solely the moderate, ‘establishment’ core of the Republican party: the Bush loyalists; the staunch GOPers. I won’t deny that Gov. Romney’s appeal is wide, and it certainly may spread to the more moderate branch of our party, but I refudiate the absurd conception that his base of support exists only in that branch. I see obnoxious headlines all the time now that predict Romney’s demise, tracing it all back to how he’s the GOP’s supposed ‘next in line’, but the Tea Party backlash will impede him from gaining wide Republican support. Just today, an article from NPR calls Mitt Romney ‘the Hillary Clinton of 2012‘ – destined to fail due an uprising in the party’s fringe…

Baloney. Mitt will never be the ‘man’ that Hillary Clinton is.

As conservatives, we’ve gotten so caught up in the day-to-day mud slinging that we’ve lost site of our principal goal: to take our country back! My concern is that the primary benefactor of all this may be the very thing we all wish to deter: the advancement of Obama’s liberal agenda.

Somewhere amidst the dust up of GOP in-fighting, the Democrats are grinning. They watch- entertained - as we are preoccupied with assigning destructive labels to our own party leaders, and dividing ourselves into far too many factions of Republicanism. “My candidate endorsed the eventual primary winner WAY before yours did!” — “Why is your guy/gal silent on this hot-button issue?” — “Why wasn’t your candidate a speaker at THIS convention?!” — “RINO this, RINO, that!”

I recognize the need for purification [giving the boot to those whose ideas are stale, whose interests are no longer with their constituents], but everyone’s vision of perfection is different – and in the end, rather than coming out of the refiner’s fire without blemish, our party instead suffers a serious case of dirty dissension.

Now, it isn’t my intention to have everyone unite around my choice for the Republican nomination (assuming that he decides to run). I do, however, offer up a suggestion that we come together under the umbrella of conservatism, and reject none that seek shelter from the tempest of progressivism. For what it’s worth, the contributors of this site have tried to maintain respectful discourse with other camps, applauding our guy when he represents us well, and keeping our target on the opposition.

Mitt Romney Not a Rino

So in exchange for the respect we’ve given you, before you go labeling ‘Mittens’ as a ‘RINO’ and speculating his downfall, remember this: Mitt Romney is a true conservative. He has a record of success in family, education, career, and government. He is an honorable husband, father, and grandpa. He is not a lifetime politician. He owes no favors. He has profound concern for the future of our Republic. He is devout in his service to God and fellow man. He is money savvy and charitable with his self-earned wealth. He is visionary and innovative. He is an economical wizard; a turnaround expert in a country that needs a turnaround.

Flip through a copy of Romney’s ‘No Apology: the Case for American Greatness’. You’ll quickly see that the man has a deep love for our country and his plan for a greater America mirrors the ideals that most Americans hold dear.

Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee continue to vie for the lead in the June National GOP nomination poll from Public Policy Polling. The favorable/unfavorable ratings for Mitt looks good, as does his overall polling. As in previous months Sarah Palin’s favorable ratings are the highest of any candidate but continues to lag in polling. What is most clear is that there is no clear front-runner thus far – 2012 could shape out to be a very tight race depending on who actually enters the race.

Early polling from PPP indicates that there is still no clear front-runner for the 2012 race. I find the numbers very interesting but can’t help but feel they may be very far from what will really happen as I’m very doubtful that all five (Gingrich, Palin, Huckabee, Romney, and Paul) will be running. In fact I would wager that only 2 or 3 of those will actually be running, and 2 or 3 other candidates not mentioned will run as well, ie. Mike Pence, Tim Pawlenty, Mitch Daniels, or Rick Santorum.

In my view the problem with these polls is that Gingrich is not going to run. No matter what he does or says, or where he’s at in the polls, I won’t believe that Gingrich will run until the moment he actually files papers to form an exploratory committee. In 2008, he toyed with the idea, gave hints etc., just the same as he is doing now. He eventually let on that he would run if he was essentially drafted into doing so by some sweeping ground-swell of grassroots support, which never happened.

Gingrich, as well as Romney, Huckabee and Palin, have much to gain in terms of name ID and national stardom, AS LONG AS they continue to flirt with the possibility of making a 2012 run. The same is true for T-Paw, Daniels or whoever. There is just something about running for president that sparks people’s interest in who you are. Otherwise we might have never known who Sam Brownback or Tom Tancredo are. But Gingrich knows, as do the others, that the minute they completely rule out running in 2012, and convince of that fact, they are no longer as interesting to the public eye and will be found in less demand for the daily news cycles.

Am I wrong on Gingrich? Anyone have hard evidence that he is running? Let me know please, I don’t want to be completely blindsided by it if he does run.

So, here are the numbers from the PPP poll:

Iowa:
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South Carolina:
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Michigan:
[table "17" not found /]

Romney showing in 4th in Iowa, but it looks like it’s essentially a 3-way tie for second. He’s in a close second in South Carolina, but my guess is that poll may be entirely inaccurate. It’s no surprise that he continues to lead Michigan in a dominating fashion. What I will note is that the 65+ crowd seems to love Romney… perhaps because they are the oldest and the wisest.

There have been a number of Romney related news articles the past few days that have gone unreported here. It appears that all of us bloggers are suffering from life-is-too-hectic-to-have-time-to-blog disease at the same time. It happens, especially near the end of the school semester.

Free and Strong America rolls out endorsements of 7 candidates for office in Illinois:

Congressman Mark Kirk: Congressman Mark Kirk currently represents the 10th Congressional District of Illinois and is now running for U.S. Senate. For more information about him and his campaign, visit http://www.kirkforsenate.com.

Congressman Peter Roskam: Congressman Peter Roskam currently represents the 6th Congressional District of Illinois and is running for reelection. For more information about him and his campaign, visit www.roskamforcongress.com.

Congressman Aaron Schock: Congressman Aaron Schock currently represents the 18th Congressional District of Illinois and is running for reelection. For more information about him and his campaign, visit www.aaronschock.com.

Robert Dold: Robert Dold is a small business owner who is running to represent the 10th Congressional District of Illinois. For more information about him and his campaign, please visit www.doldforcongress.com.

Randy Hultgren: Randy Hultgren currently represents the people of Illinois in the State Senate and is now running to represent the 14th Congressional District of Illinois. For more information about him and his campaign, please visit www.hultgrenforcongress.com.

Adam Kinzinger: Adam Kinzinger has served in local government and as a member of the U.S. Air Force. He is now is running to represent the 11th Congressional District of Illinois. For more information about him and his campaign, visit www.electadam.com.

Dan Rutherford: Dan Rutherford currently represents the people of Illinois in the State Senate and is now running to become State Treasurer. For more information about him and his campaign, visit www.danrutherford.org.

[...]

These Illinois endorsements are the seventh in a series of state rollouts of the PAC’s 2010 endorsements, which are aimed at electing conservative candidates who will work to lower taxes and spending, restore commonsense principles to healthcare and get our economy moving again. As part of this program, Romney’s PAC also has announced endorsements in Ohio, Missouri, California, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, and Nevada. (source)

Romney’s steady roll-out of endorsements is an exercise in some not-so-subtle muscle-flexing by the former governor. Romney led all potential 2012 Republican candidates in fundraising over the first three months of 2010 and has, without question, the most sophisticated political operation of any of the contenders. (source)

Romney quote on Arizona’s new immigration law:

Arizona’s new immigration enforcement law is the direct result of Washington’s failure to secure the border and to protect the lives and liberties of our citizens. [...] It is my hope that the law will be implemented with care and caution not to single out individuals based upon their ethnicity. It is increasingly clear that the time has come for Washington to fulfill its responsibility for border security. (source)

All the streets in America are connected – Romney responds to DNC attack ad: I think this should win the quote-of-the-day award.

Democrats attacked Romney in recent days for his defense of Wall Street as the Obama administration pushes for new banking regulations.

[...] And frankly, I don’t believe in discriminating against anybody, regardless of the street they’re from,” he said. “You see, all the streets in America are connected, and scape-goating and demonizing individuals based on where they live or where they work is a big mistake.

Romney went on to say that any bad actors should be punished appropriately. Meanwhile Hoekstra, who’s running for governor, said most of what he saw of recent Senate hearings on Goldman Sachs was political posturing. (source) (hat tip)

In related news: 24-hour live webcam shows the nest of a bald eagle family with an egg (1 at least) that hatched just this morning. The little baby eagle is so cute (when you can see him). My wife watched the parents land in the nest with a fish and feed little pieces of it the the baby bird. Watch it any time of day here: http://www.hornbyeagles.com/webcam
How is this related? Well… Romney is going to be the next President of the United States, and the bald eagle is an official emblem of the United States. So you see it’s not too far of a stretch, even though these particular bald eagles are on Hornby Island which is just of the coast of British Columbia.

Lastly: (Video) Charlie Crist announces he will will run for senator of Florida as an independent:

First, I want to congratulate Ron Paul and his supporters for another very impressive showing. They once again did very well due to their hard work, and I’m even happier to know that we outworked them for once. The friendly competition continues as we work to elect conservatives to Congress this year and then the presidency in 2012!

I’m a little perturbed that FOX News released the results of the poll before it was announced before at CPAC. It came up on twitter almost a full 10 minutes before the actual announcement.

CPAC attendees have spoken and have chosen RON PAUL for their preference for the GOP nomination in 2012? Romney had won the contest in 2009, 2008, and 2007 (click here for results for all three years). The straw poll was open all Thursday and closed at 1:00 on Friday. This year is said to be different from previous years as there has not been much push or buzz to win the poll, though it’s obvious the Campaign for Liberty had their eye on the prize. Congratulations to Ron Paul and all of his supporters! We’ll see ya’ll again next year!

Good news! Mitt Romney is a confirmed speaker at CPAC 2010. Scheduled for February 18-20, 2010, the gathering of politicos and policy makers will cause a stir as they descend on the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington D.C. Register early to be part of the excitement as the mid-term elections gear up and potential presidential candidates for 2012 mix and mingle.